


the taste of wishful thinking

by callixto



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Age Changes, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-21 07:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19998391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callixto/pseuds/callixto
Summary: this one's happy i promise!! prompt 3 for round 2, yearswap shumika.





	the taste of wishful thinking

**Author's Note:**

> this one's happy i promise!! prompt 3 for round 2, yearswap shumika.

Mika can _not_ manage to pick Shu up, even though he’s younger (and how is that fair! he gets no benefits from being a 3rd year, really), but he can swing Mademoiselle up from his strange little underclassman’s arms and spin her around, and that’s nearly as good. He wheels with them and stomps on Mika’s foot, reaching for her imperiously. “ _Oshi-san,”_ he hisses, with remarkable restraint. 

Under Shu’s breath, Mademoiselle is giggling happily. 

He smoothes her dress down in a fuss rather than risk pulling her from Mika’s arms, scowling. Mika makes her wave cheerily down to him, careful with her joints. “‘Good afternoon, Mika-chan! Shu-kun missed you, you know~ He’s been working hard today!’"

“Shu’s always workin’ hard,” Mika says, without a shred of hesitation. A flush spreads high across Shu’s cheeks. 

“Put Mademoiselle back down,” Shu snaps, turning back to his sewing and nearly jabbing the needle into his index finger, “and let me work, then. The Handicrafts Club has jobs to finish, and I’ve been doing them all on my own!”

“Mmnah, that’s ‘cause it was class-time, though? You’re just a second year, you can’t be skippin’ so much. I told ya I’d stay up later at nights, Valkyrie’s gonna be okay for fundin’..”

It’s an old argument of theirs, and Shu won’t dignify it with a response. After his last, disastrous, attempt, Mika’s seen the futility in taking his work bodily from him during his fits ; instead, he rests his pointy chin in the crook of Shu’s shoulder. “Mado-nee agrees with me,” he hums, settling her against Shu’s side til he steadies her in the crook of his arm without thought. “Your wrists’re hurtin’ ya, right? Ritsu-kun told me you didn’t show up for class at all.”

Mademoiselle leans close when he does, studying Shu’s stitching. Her pretty, painted face has no right to manage looking so judgemental. “‘That’s right, Mika-chan. After you said goodbye this morning, we just came here! Shu-kun’s work is always neat, but he hasn’t taken a break all day.’”

Shu lets out an unhappy hiss of breath. “You’re all traitors,” he declares, without conviction. A dropped or lengthy stitch by his exacting standards is still marketable, but he’s sure Mademoiselle and Mika have both noticed the errors. Subtly, he slumps towards Mika’s weight on him. “What wrists, I don’t need them! Sakasaki-san can make them like Mademoiselle’s, and then I’ll be just fine to keep working. Since Oshi-san _isn’t helping.”_

“..I wouldn’t be a very good one if I did,” Mika murmurs. “If y’won’t take a break f’r your wrists, uuh, ‘s gettin’ Mado-nee out of the clubroom for awhile enough of a reason? Y’know she doesn’t like goin’ places without you, but ‘m sure she’s lonely, right?”

“This is _trickery.”_ When Shu sulks, hunching in on himself with scuffed, unwieldy elbows poking out at cross-corners, his feathery hair almost seems to fluff out. 

“Y’know what I’m doin’, though?”

He clicks his tongue, but Mademoiselle’s slipped-in laugh settles the matter. “Fine,” Shu huffs, sullenly. “Only for a few moments! If it’s for her, then it’s alright.” Whatever reason Shu will take, Mika won’t complain. He reaches his arms around Shu, and knots off the thread on his work for him with clumsy hands as he rubs the tension from his wrists. 

“‘Maybe Mika-chan should carry me instead,’” she teases. Shu shoves his aching hands into his pockets, one grabbing for Mika’s own. Mika’s other reclaims Mado-nee, hooking his elbow under her knees snugly. It’s a mark of their prickly favor, he knows, that he’s allowed to help carry her to begin with -- Shu, ever careful, would never drop her, but Mika doesn’t mind being used as a pack mule. They pass, uncommented on, a few other students, and Shu doesn’t tug his hand away.

Mika swings their linked hands between them, Mademoiselle perched regally in his arms, and feels nothing but fond. 


End file.
